Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

The Shape Of Things: A Theatrical Examination Of The Progression Of Emotional Manipulation, Kylee Lorio

Honors Projects

In Neil LaBute's work, The Shape of Things, graduate art student Evelyn Thompson meets security guard and future muse, Adam Sorenson, in an art museum during his late-night shift. Their meeting poses the question of just how far humans are willing to go for love. In less than two hours, LaBute’s insight regarding manipulation between intimate partners calls the integrity of our own interpersonal relationships into question. This project encapsulates the materials of Bridgewater College student Kylee Lorio while directing this production during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our Town Set Design, Zabrina Corrales

Honors College Theses

An important piece of any theatrical production is the scenic design. My thesis project follows my process through the research and design process used to create my own set design for Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I look at the text of the script as well as the background of Thornton Wilder’s ideas for the play. I explore other productions’ choices and what worked or did not work for them. By using my own analysis of the script and research on design elements, I produce an original set design for Our Town including a ground plan and renderings of ...

Racial Equity For Registered Drama Therapists: A Community Engagement Project, Jamila Batts Capitman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Mental health professionals are currently faced with an increased need to meet the demands of clients of color who are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Disparities in mental health care for people of color are an ongoing problem stemming from the fact that Western Psychology, the dominant approach to mental health care, is limited by the Eurocentric Worldview. Practitioners who intend to create inclusive therapeutic approaches must consider the unique cultural orientations and historical, social and political realities of clients of color. As of 2021, The North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA) requires that 50% of all continuing ...

The Ripple Effect: ‘Training The Trainer’ On The Impact Of Body Image Through A Dance/Movement Therapy Technique, Marina Gearhart

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis describes the capstone project which was a psychoeducation and experiential workshop for fitness trainers. The workshop investigated the impact trainers’ work may have on the body image of their clients through a dance/movement therapy (DMT) technique. The aim was to enhance the trainers’ sensitivity around body image issues of their clients and to create a space for vulnerable movement conversation that may in turn lead to better mental health advocacy for their clients within the scope of ethical practice. The participants of the workshop were six white female identifying trainers ranging from 24 to 35 years of ...

Shape-Shifting Anew: A Covid-19 Come-Unity Engagement Project Co-Created By An International Student Collective, Kaeleigh De Silva

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

COVID-19’s looming hold over the global landscape compounds already established stressors facing international students studying in the U.S. Now, more than ever, there needs to be intentional and innovative research approaches to meet the growing needs of this overlooked population. Thus, a virtual expressive arts-based performative inquiry of reciprocity and collaboration was developed to support international students in the midst of the pandemic. This arts-based participatory action research was built in three stages: phase one consisted of a devising process where international students could build a performance collectively, phase two invited members of the wider expressive therapies study ...

Drama Therapy For Actor Training Programs, Emily Faith

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This review synthesizes the literature on the mental health trends and developmental stages of student actors in university theatre programs and the mental health issues they may suffer because of their field of training. I then review the potential negative impacts of COVID-19. Special attention is paid to drama therapy techniques to weave into college and university theatre programs to mitigate mental health concerns invoked by training.

Language As The Medium: A Literature Review. Harnessing The Prolific Power Of Dramatic Language As A Therapeutic Tool In Drama Therapy, Edward Freeman

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Language in and of the theatre, with its palate of variegated writing styles and playwrights from throughout time, has the potential to be harnessed, focused, and systematized for use as a therapeutic tool within drama therapy – the field’s artistic medium. Drama therapy could benefit from having a specific medium germane to its artform which has the potential to provide practitioners with a common resource and means of communication, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning, as well as align the field with other creative arts therapies. Language encompasses all forms of human communication – speaking, writing, signing, gesturing, expressing facially – and voice ...

An Introduction To Theatre Of Omniscience, Kierstan K. Conway

The Downtown Review

Theatre is an art of infinite possibility and is created and viewed from a variety of different lenses. Throughout history, artistic movements such as realism, surrealism, naturalism, expressionism, romanticism, and many more have influenced the ideologies of theatrical artists. Theatre practitioners make a stake in their artistic beliefs in the form of manifestos, which encapsulate their understanding in an abstract or concrete way. In reading and studying these manifestos, the individual then has the choice to follow suit to a school of thought, or derive their own philosophy. Theatre, in one viewpoint, can be understood as a means of omniscience ...

The Therapeutic Benefits Of Attunement Through Lindy Hop, Sarah Trowbridge

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Dance/movement therapy (DMT) was developed as a tool to aide in therapeutic healing. A foundational aspect of DMT is attunement, the emotional/kinesthetic connection between two people that allows for meaningful and healing bonds to emerge. Lindy Hop is a partnered dance that fosters an environment of attunement, as it is accessed both subconsciously and consciously. This research explores Lindy Hop as a possible method of therapeutic treatment. The literature indicates the physiological need for attunement and how safety plays a key role in strengthening senses of self-identity, nervous system development, and worldview. Four experienced Lindy Hoppers were recruited ...

I Am, Braylee Polson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

I Am is a creative thesis in the form of a theatrical play. This play creates a new Appalachian legend based around the Biblical Story of Moses, feminism, and the African Deity Mami Wata.

Book Review: Anna Watkins Fisher. The Play In The System: The Art Of Parasitical Resistance, Nora Almeida

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Who, What, Why: A Self-Reflection On The Creation And Practice Of Audition Technique In The Business Of Live Theatre, Kenneth Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is a breakdown of what auditioning is in the world of professional acting and how I (the subject) have developed my own technique through my undergraduate journey.

Captions For Covid? Hearing Accessibility In Virtual "Zoom" Theatre, Gianna Schuetz

Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic shut the doors of theatres across the United States and the rest of the world. Live theatre came to a sudden halt as gatherings of people served as significant health risks. As live theatre performances became nearly obsolete, many theatre organizations were forced to creatively adapt to move their programming to a virtual format. Presenting theatre in a virtual format brings many challenges; however, it also brings opportunities for increased accessibility and access, particularly for individuals who are hard of hearing.

The following thesis explores hearing accessibility measures taken by theatre companies as they ventured into virtual ...

Chickens In Texas: A Farce In One Act, Lawson Marchetti

Honors Theses

Herein lies a one-act farce written by Lawson David Marchetti, an English major in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi. His emphasis is in Creative Writing, and his minors are in Theatre Arts and in Music. This farce was written as his senior thesis, for the completion of requirements of the Honors College. The play was conceived in August of 2020, and completed in April of 2021. The play itself is set in modern times, sans pandemic, and is highly whimsical in style. It requires a cast of twelve comedic actors, and several complicated technical ...

Between Laughter And Tears: Topsy's Performance In Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Jewon Woo

Research on Diversity in Youth Literature

No abstract provided.

Critical Spectatorship? Theater In The Age Of A Pandemic, Rebecca Vernachio

Senior Scholars Day

How can a diverse theater where critical spectators disagree advance ethics? What is the precise nature and function of an ethical dilemma? What is the pedagogical impact of dilemmas replacing the dead end of imposed solutions toward happy endings? How can we promote critical spectatorship under almost exclusively virtual circumstances? What can online performance as part of an ethically informed theatrical vision achieve in the realms of community and leadership? These are the main questions this project pursues. Through discussions with SU students and alumni, this project sets out to understand how possible answers to these questions have impacted the ...

I'M Going To Go Back There Someday: Reading, Writing, And Directing Hauntings In Four American Plays, Asher A. G. De Forest

Theatre and Dance Honors Projects

Asher de Forest

I’m Going to Go Back There Someday: Reading, Writing, and Directing Hauntings in Four American Plays

In this personal and formal research essay, I discuss and compare the plays A Raisin in the Sun, Fefu and Her Friends, Angels in America, and I’m Going to Go Back There Someday (my own work, which I am also directing in partial fulfillment for Honors in Theater and Dance). These plays all bring forth hauntings, despite and in some cases because of their differences in content and style—ranging from realism to the avant-garde. I base my discussion ...

Gender In Massenet’S Cendrillon, Mallory Bedford

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Cendrillon by Jules Massenet raises questions about gender in performance as the character of the Prince is sung by a woman which is combined with the complex nature of Cendrillon’s transformation from daughter to wife. To better understand the use and portrayal of gender in Cendrillon, I examine the history of the trouser role in opera, the phenomenon of the female initiation in fairy-tales, and the concept of the binary categories and performances of the voice. In a pre-feminist context the female voice of the Prince highlights his youth, further equates high pitches to heroic natures, and adds a ...

An Annual Training Plan For Collegiate Dance, Ashley R. German

Honors Thesis

The focus of this thesis is on developing an annual resistance training plan for collegiate dance with no test subjects. This project provides biomechanical, physiological, and injury analysis of collegiate dance. Based on the analysis, a research-based, linear resistance training program for the University of South Dakota Dance Team was created. The resistance training program follows basic strength and conditioning principles including specificity, overload, and periodization. Additionally, exercise selection, order, volume, and intensity were prescribed based on standards set forth by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Generally, from off-season to in-season, exercises moved from general to specific, along with ...

Le Poème | La Danseuse, Karen Fleming

Arts & Sciences Student Symposium

le poème | La Danseuse is a piece that explores the relationship between historical, often male-created representations of the female dancer and the possibilities that exist for female dancers to claim their own identities in the twenty-first century. Drawing on modernist poetry and early modern dance, the film component of the piece emphasizes the ways in which the poetic image of the female dancer as an ideal, ethereal figure is a mere projection, or something unreal. Once the dancer on stage emerges, she begins to push back against the trappings of the historic gaze and ultimately breaks out of its confines ...